THE Princess of Wales has mastered one of the main crucial tricks to being a captivating royal – having the perfect “listening face.”
According to a body language expert, Kate Middleton is a master in never looking bored or uninterested, regardless of who she meets during engagements.
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It’s this, Judi James claims, which sets her apart, like it did for the late Queen, and will help sustain the royal family into the future.
Speaking to Fabulous, she said: “Kate has spent years perfecting the body language of sustainability and is now at no risk of looking bored or showing any negative emotions.
“She looks comfortable and relaxed with her skills tucked into her muscle memory, just as the Queen was always able to present the sweetest of smiles under the most difficult of circumstances.
“It would be naïve to suggest Kate is totally fascinated by every aspect of every meeting and visit but the point is she looks as though she is and this is an important skill that could help the monarchy survive into the future.”
Kate recently visited a Royal Navy airfield and perfectly displayed her “active listening” skills during the engagement.
As the Princess of Wales struggled to inflate a lifejacket, she burst into laughter to the delight of on-looking military staff.
Judi added: “Kate has spent years sporting her pitch-perfect, bullet-proof royal smile that managed to look relatively natural despite being sustained for long periods of time.
“But the Kate we’ve been seeing over the past year has been anything but one-dimensional.
“Growing her brand by stealth has allowed her to show more facets of who she is without compromising her closely-guarded privacy.
“The cues and clues we’re seeing now suggest this is also the real Kate, the relaxed and very confident one that has been hiding behind the demurer version all those years.”
The body language pro claims the life-jacket was “one of the best examples of Kate’s new, three-dimensional approach”.
Judi added that Kate’s “slow burning approach” to having a natural confidence and interest in whoever she meets contrasts with her sister-in-law, Meghan Markle.
She explained: “Meghan’s ‘royal’ approach could hardly have been more of a contrast.
“Coming from the US and with a career in drama, of course she would have found our royals cold and unemotional.
“Her body language (and Harry’s) tends to come in short, intense bursts.
“With Meghan there was a wonderful array of open emotions as she used her body language to describe her intense and passionate love of her husband, smiled with total enthusiasm on royal visits and hugged, touched and posed for selfies in a style that was more celebrity than royal.”
We recently saw the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Invictus Games, where they supported wounded, injured, and sick service personnel and veterans.
Judi pointed out that while we saw Meghan and Harry singing and dancing at the event, we also witnessed moments where they didn’t look fully relaxed.
She explained: “Both were looking wildly happy and excited at Invictus but there was no going off-set or off-stage at an event like that, which meant there were also moments when Meghan was caught looking unsure or trying to capture Harry’s attention.”
Royal editor Victoria Ward, who was at the Games, observed: “She [Meghan] is not quite yet in her comfort zone like her husband.
“She claps enthusiastically and hands out medals with a megawatt smile but is not quite so relaxed.”
While Kate has perfected her role for over a decade after marrying Prince William in 2011, Meghan’s five years in the royal spotlight have been a whirlwind.
Royal commentator Daniela Elser wrote in News.com.au: “If we look at Kate and Meghan right now, the former has built and grown her image and role over the course of a ten years plus while Meghan jumped from guise to role to cause like someone throwing things at a wall to see what sticks.
“This time in 2017, Meghan was just only making her public debut with Harry at the Toronto Invictus Games (mind blowing right?) and in the relatively short span of time since then, she has been an actress, a blogger, a working royal, an exiled royal, a podcaster, a documentary-marker and participant, a charity founder, an investor in an organic vegan latte business and an ‘impact partner’ with fintech asset manager Ethic.
“(She has also moved countries three times, moved house five times, gotten married, changed religion, had a child, had a miscarriage, and had another child.)”
Meghan and Kate’s contrasting royal journeys are also reflected in the way they dress for public appearances, claims fashion director Amber Graafland.
She told Fabulous: “Kate has strategically honed and perfected her image over the course of 10 years.
“Her style has evolved as her role and her confidence have grown.
“The Kate we see today is a glossier, more polished version of her former self, dressing for her part on the world stage.
“Meghan’s style journey on the other hand has been a little less smooth. As has her role.
“Struggling to find her place in the royal family settling on a public image hasn’t been easy.
“From royal, to post-royal to California girl, she’s flirted with a variety of fleeting looks.
“Her style as this year’s Invictus games has been a work in progress.
“Last year’s Valentino has been replaced with a wardrobe that largely consisted of high street labels like Zara, Banana Republic and J Crew.”
Speaking of where the royal women are at, Daniela added: “For the time being, Kate is not only having the last, but the only laugh. For now, that is.
“With Meghan supposedly set to wheel out some new digital enterprise any hot minute and her Instagram relaunch surely a question of when, not if, the tables could be about to turn, tout suite.”
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